Cadets from Civil Air Patrol's Marauder Composite Squadron, based in Kingwood, operate a litter used to rescue missing victims.

Cadets from Civil Air Patrol's Marauder Composite Squadron, based in Kingwood, operate a litter used to rescue missing victims.

Photo: Nate Brown

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Cadets from Civil Air Patrol's Marauder Composite squadron based in Kingwood tend to a litter used in search and rescue exercises.

Cadets from Civil Air Patrol's Marauder Composite squadron based in Kingwood tend to a litter used in search and rescue exercises.

Photo: Nate Brown

Image 3 of 3

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Here’s the scenario: a 63-year-old male is missing. He is known to walk his dog along trails in the park, suffers from Alzheimer’s and was last seen yesterday. He may require immediate medical attention. The objective: search for him, rescue him.

That’s the typical kind of Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) performed by Civil Air Patrol’s Marauder Composite Squadron, based out of Kingwood.

There wasn’t really a missing 63-year-old; it was just a training scenario. But, there was a training dummy, stretchers and a good bit of search and rescue techniques and emergency services training employed by 16 teenagers and 8 “senior members” Saturday, Feb. 15 at the group’s exercise.

Civil Air Patrol was born one week prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor when flight-skilled volunteers banded together in defense of the country. After 500,000 flight hours, hundreds of crash victims rescued and sinking two submarines, CAP earned a charter from President Harry Truman in 1946 as a nonprofit Air Force Auxiliary.

Now, CAP conducts 90 percent of all inland search and rescue missions and saves an average of 75 lives per year.

The three primary missions of CAP are aerospace education, cadet programs and emergency services. CAP is divided into those over 18 - senior members - and those 12 to 18 years old - cadets.

“Civil Air Patrol gives me the ability to share my experience of seven and a half years in the military with highly motivated high school and middle school cadets,” senior member Kevin Ferris said. “It’s getting them involved in something other than console boxes and TV. They’re out working with a team, growing and getting guidance.”

The cadets meet weekly - Mondays for the Kingwood squadron - to engage in all three missions of Civil Air Patrol, physical training and leadership training.

Ferris currently is a pilot for United Airlines and as such is the aerospace education officer for the Kingwood Marauder Squadron.

“I teach them about aeronautics, aerospace physics, control towers, weather, flight controls, aerodynamics anything involved in getting an object up in the air.”

The cadets have a rank structure similar to the United States Air Force and operate within that structure. As cadets complete written tests, physical fitness tests and leadership training, they promote to higher ranks.

“They answer through their command structure as cadets,” Ferris said. “They have flight leaders, they have cadet commanders. You don’t go to an adult, you go up the chain of command. You are able to be accountable as individual working within a unit. It builds character.”

“I’ve been in for about five years and when it comes to things like SAREXes and leadership camps and everything else, that all applies to real world leadership experience and developing how to interact with people and we do it with a military sense,” Williams said. “I just left my cadet commander position. It was a good experience and I think it will really help in the business world after.”

Williams aspires to one day be a pilot in the civilian world.

The Marauder Composite Squadron meets at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Kingwood on Monday nights from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. For information on how to get involved, visit the group’s website: tx409.com.